Related stories:Grand Jury questions management practices at SBIA Scot Spencer, the former airline executive and convicted felon who was nonetheless entrusted with leading the development of San Bernardino International Airport, faces five years in prison after being charged with an alleged associate with conspiring to steal more than $1 million in public funds.

It's the first major development connected to alleged corruption at the airport since FBI agents raided airport offices and Spencer's Riverside home in September 2011.

"It's an unconscionable crime - morally, ethically - and now it's reached to a criminal level, and this office is going to hold them responsible," San Bernardino County District Attorney Michael A. Ramos said during a Monday news conference at his office.

Spencer, 48, was being held in custody in Florida on Monday after being arrested the previous day in Boca Raton. Ramos' office has charged Spencer with five felonies, including two counts of conspiracy to commit grand theft. Authorities have also charged another man, Felice G. Luciano, 69, with two conspiracy counts. Luciano was considered a fugitive as of Monday.

The criminal allegations laid out Monday against Spencer and Luciano revolve around what authorities say was a fraudulent $1.75 million claim that Spencer filed against the San Bernardino International Airport Authority in 2008. The authority runs the airport, but its board is made up of elected officials from the region, including from the city and county of San Bernardino, Colton, Loma Linda and Highland.

Prosecutors allege that one of Spencer's companies, SBD Aircraft Services, falsely reported that the firm on July, 24, 2008, faxed a message to the Democratic National Committee cancelling an aircraft lease because that firm and another Spencer-affiliated enterprise, Norton Aircraft Maintenance Services, could not occupy a necessary hangar at the airport. According to prosecutors, however, Spencer never actually had a lease with the Democratic National Committee. According to a 13-page affidavit, legal counsel to the DNC stated they had no such agreement.

Attempts to reach Spencer and his attorney were unsuccessful as were attempts to reach Luciano.

The criminal complaint alleges that on March 26, 2010, Spencer and Luciano met at the Blue Water Grill in New York City, where Luciano signed a document purporting that SBD Airport Services would lease an aircraft to a company called Unique Aviation Properties to provide the aircraft to the Democratic National Committee by Aug. 23, 2008.

Luciano reportedly signed the document on behalf of Unique Aviation, at Spencer's encouragement. Spencer signed for SBD Aircraft Services.

Three days after the New York City meeting, Spencer is alleged to have provided a copy of the fraudulent lease agreement in response to a court order.

Those allegations form the basis of the conspiracy counts filed against Spencer and Luciano. Spencer is accused of two counts of perjury and one count of preparing false documentary evidence.

Ramos said that if convicted of crafting a false document, Spencer would have to do time in prison instead of county lockdown.

He left the possibility open that more arrests may be made in the case, which has been investigated by the Inland Regional Corruption Task Force - including Ramos' office, the FBI, U.S. Attorney's Office and state Attorney General's Office.

'Their own piggy bank'

Ramos also touched on the history of the airport and how, as the former Norton Air Force Base, it once served as one of the biggest economic engines in the area before it closed in 1994. He credited the San Bernardino International Airport Authority and Inland Valley Development Agency in their efforts to revitalize the airport and elevate it to its former glory.

Spencer and Luciano violated the public trust in those efforts, Ramos said.

"And then you have individuals, individuals such as Scot Spencer, Luciano - that have zero, no ties to this community - that are brought in to oversee and try to develop that side of it," Ramos said. "What they did is they took that passion of those people who wanted to turn it around and use that passion as their own piggy bank to live this lavish lifestyle of travel, expensive items - over $1.2 million that they stole from these people that really wanted to do a job to San Bernardino International Airport. "

At Monday's news conference, Ramos took several questions pertaining to whether any of the elected officials in charge of overseeing the airport may bear any criminal responsibility if it can be proven that Spencer and Luciano broke the law. He refrained from saying outright whether others may be arrested.

Spencer had a checkered reputation before he found his way to San Bernardino International Airport around 2003, when he managed a firm that was then leasing space to store Boeing 727 jets.

A federal jury convicted Spencer of bankruptcy fraud and in May 1996 he was sentenced to 51 months in prison and three years' supervised release. The conviction stemmed from Spencer's use of an advertising agency in 1992 to conceal payments he received from Braniff Airlines while that company was in bankruptcy protection. Those payments were required to have been disclosed to the bankruptcy court.

In a matter involving another company, an administrative law judge wrote a default judgement against spencer in August 2005 "to permanently cease and desist from further marketing or other involvement in air transportation operations so that he is banned from the aviation industry. "

The felony conviction and default judgement did not deter San Bernardino International Airport Authority's governing board from hiring Spencer to build a new passenger terminal at the airport and take on other crucial responsibilities during what has become a troubled effort to convert the former Air Force base into a commercial airport.

Two of Spencer's firms, Norton Development Company, LLC and SBD Properties, LLC, received contracts worth $43 million to build a new passenger terminal and fixed-base operator, a facility that serves private aircraft at SBIA. By January 2011, however, those costs had ballooned to more than $125 million.

The account of rising costs of airport projects under Spencer's management can be found in a highly-critical San Bernardino County Grand Jury report released in 2011.

For example, the 2007 agreement between the airport board and the Spencer-managed Norton Property Development Company, LLC gave Spencer's firm a terminal lease that included the terms to build a new passenger terminal. At the time, total costs of building the terminal were estimated at $38 million and capped at $45 million.

Additional work agreed to in 2009 raised the maximum costs to $61 million, but costs climbed to roughly $96 million by January 2011. Norton Development claimed a developers fee worth about $1.3 million.

'Who's next?'

Although the District Attorney's announcement and filings contained no allegations of crimes related to the cost overruns, former San Bernardino County Supervisor Neil Derry expects to hear more revelations of malfeasance at SBIA.

"It's about time that an arrest occurred and I think it will lead to others," said Derry, who was an alternate on the airport's governing board. "My question is, 'Who's next? It certainly doesn't end with Scot Spencer. "

Derry said he and staffers from his office reported their concerns to the FBI in 2009.

"It should not have taken this long. Spencer should not have been hired," Derry said. "This airport has been a disaster for the East Valley. "

Federal agents served search warrants at the airport and at Spencer's Riverside residence in September 2011, seeking "all records, documents, programs, applications or materials related to any company or business affiliated with Scot Spencer," according to one of the warrants. The warrant listed 16 companies - limited liability companies (LLCs) and corporations - that Spencer was tied to including SBD Aircraft Services LLC., SBD Services Inc., and Norton Property Management Services LLC., which Spencer and his business partner, T. Milford Harrison, had unsuccessfully sought bankruptcy protection.

The FBI also sought, according to the warrant, information establishing a relationship between Spencer, Harrison, and Luciano, and San Bernardino mayor Pat Morris, among others.

Supervising Deputy District Robert Brown said the warrants served in 2011 provide some of the information that was used to build the case against Spencer and Luciano.

"A lot of information comes from law enforcement's information, including the warrants," Brown said.

Among San Bernardino County's politicians, Derry has been one of the few to publicly cast doubt on the prospects of building a commercially viable airport in San Bernardino. Others, including Morris, have pointed to SBIA as an opportunity to create a new business center for San Bernardino and replace the economic activity lost after Norton closed in 1994.

Morris is also president of the airport board and held that position in 2007, when Spencer was hired to build the terminal.

Morris said he saw no red flags about Spencer before the task force began its investigation.

"We are and have been cooperating fully in the investigation with the investigating authorities, and have been since the commission first learned of the mission," Morris said. "From the moment the commission learned of the investigation we have been doing everything possible to distance ourselves from Mr. Spencer. We have terminated his contacts, we hired new administrative leadership at the airport, and we pursued civil restitution for outstanding debts that he owes to us. "

Spencer has not had a presence at San Bernardino International Airport since October, interim airport director A.J. Wilson said. The Airport Authority now has control over the terminal, fuel farm and other critical facilities, including a private terminal that briefly bore the marque of Million Air, a Texas-based franchise that provides refueling services and luxury facilities to private flyers.

The airport authority took over those operations after a federal judge dismissed bankruptcy cases filed on behalf of two of Spencer's firms.

The airport authority has also hired a consulting firm called to determine the feasibility of passenger flights at SBIA, Wilson said.

"We've employed a professional firm, Mead & Hunt, who will be analyzing our market information and what they believe are realistic expectations of recruiting passenger service," he said.

Wilson expects the report to be completed in June.

Extradition proceedings are now under way to bring Spencer to San Bernardino to face arraignment.

This story has been corrected to reprot the correct year when Scot Spencer was sentenced to prison.